McCord's Hospital, originally McCord Zulu Hospital, is a hospital in Durban, South Africa.
It was founded "for the Zulu", by American Christian missionaries, physician Dr. James Bennett McCord and Margaret Mellen McCord, in 1909. [1]
McCord Hospital shut down after 104 years in 2013 due to budget cuts by the local government. [2]
McCord Hospital's Sinikithemba HIV clinic was a President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief site in South Africa that treated provided antiretrovirals to both adults and children. [3] [4]
The Sinikithema HIV clinic was one of the first PEPFAR sites to build an electronic medical record. [5] The EMR system identified that nonpregnant women with an elevated mean body mass index (BMI) on the HIV antiretroviral stavudine were at a higher risk of developing lactic acidosis. [6]
Several implementation studies were published documenting McCord Hospitals HIV antiretroviral cohorts in prestigious international journals. [7] The Sinikithema family centered model was also featured in a letter to the editor in The New York Times [8]
The University of KwaZulu-Natal is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville.
The United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a United States governmental initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease. Launched by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2003, as of May 2020, PEPFAR has provided about $90 billion in cumulative funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research since its inception, making it the largest global health program focused on a single disease in history until the COVID-19 pandemic. PEPFAR is implemented by a combination of U.S. government agencies in over 50 countries and overseen by the Global AIDS Coordinator at the United States Department of State. As of 2023, PEPFAR has saved over 25 million lives, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.
Nevirapine (NVP), sold under the brand name Viramune among others, is a medication used to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, specifically HIV-1. It is generally recommended for use with other antiretroviral medications. It may be used to prevent mother to child spread during birth but is not recommended following other exposures. It is taken by mouth.
HIV/AIDS is one of the most serious health concerns in South Africa. The country has the highest number of people afflicted with HIV of any country, and the fourth-highest adult HIV prevalence rate, according to the 2019 United Nations statistics.
HIV disease–related drug reaction is an adverse drug reaction caused by drugs used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Eric Goosby is an American public health official, currently serving as Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Global Health Delivery, Diplomacy and Economics, Institute for Global Health Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Goosby previously served as the UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis as well as previously served as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator from 2009 until mid-November 2013. In the role, Goosby directed the U.S. strategy for addressing HIV around the world and led President Obama's implementation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Goosby was sworn in during June 2009 and resigned in November 2013, taking a position as a professor at UCSF, where he directs the Center for Global Health Delivery and Diplomacy, a collaboration between UCSF and the University of California, Berkeley.
WhizzKids United is a youth HIV / AIDS prevention, care, treatment and support programme that uses football as an educational medium to facilitate healthy behaviour change. The programme is based in Durban, South Africa and is run by Africaid, a registered charity in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
South Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is among the most severe in the world, is concentrated in its townships, where many black South Africans live due to the lingering effects of the Group Areas Act.
Madwaleni Hospital is a Provincial government funded hospital near rural Elliotdale, Eastern Cape in South Africa.
Quarraisha Abdool Karim is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and co-founder and Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA. She is a Professor in Clinical Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York and Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Salim S. Abdool Karim, MBChB, MMed, MS(Epi), FFPHM, FFPath (Virol), DipData, PhD, DSc(hc), FRS is a South African public health physician, epidemiologist and virologist who has played a leading role in the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemic. His scientific contributions have impacted the landscape of HIV prevention and treatment, saving thousands of lives.
Ubhejane is a South African herbal medicine marketed as a treatment for HIV/AIDS, reportedly the most popular alternative medicine treatment for the disease in South Africa. It was invented by former truck driver Zeblon Gwala, who has claimed that he got the idea for it in a dream. Gwala advises his patients to take ubhejane instead of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), saying that while both ubhejane and ARVs work, ubhejane, unlike ARVs, does not have side effects. The price at which ubhejane was sold has been reported variously at $25 and $50 US dollars.
Treatment as prevention (TasP) is a concept in public health that promotes treatment as a way to prevent and reduce the likelihood of HIV illness, death and transmission from an infected individual to others. Expanding access to earlier HIV diagnosis and treatment as a means to address the global epidemic by preventing illness, death and transmission was first proposed in 2000 by Garnett et al. The term is often used to talk about treating people that are currently living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) to prevent illness, death and transmission. Although some experts narrow this to only include preventing infections, treatment prevents illnesses such as tuberculosis and has been shown to prevent death. In relation to HIV, antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a three or more drug combination therapy that is used to decrease the viral load, or the measured amount of virus, in an infected individual. Such medications are used as a preventative for infected individuals to not only spread the HIV virus to their negative partners but also improve their current health to increase their lifespans. When taken correctly, ART is able to diminish the presence of the HIV virus in the bodily fluids of an infected person to a level of undetectability. Consistent adherence to an ARV regimen, monitoring, and testing are essential for continued confirmed viral suppression. Treatment as prevention rose to great prominence in 2011, as part of the HPTN 052 study, which shed light on the benefits of early treatment for HIV positive individuals.
Andrew John Ross is a family medicine specialist at UKZN, and is the founder and a trustee of Umthombo Youth Development Foundation (UYDF) which has produced more than 135 graduates in 16 different health science disciplines.
Hoosen Mahomed "Jerry" Coovadia was a South African medical doctor, academic, and former anti-apartheid activist. He was Victor Daitz Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Bruce D. Walker is an American physician and scientist whose infectious disease research has produced many findings regarding HIV/AIDS. He became interested in studying HIV/AIDS after practicing on the front lines of the epidemic in the early 1980s, prior to the identification of HIV as the etiologic agent and prior to the availability of viable treatment options.
Roy D. Mugerwa was a Ugandan physician, cardiologist and researcher. His contribution to the world of academics include being a Professor Emeritus at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, cardiology in Uganda, researching HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and his efforts to find an effective HIV vaccine.
James Bennett McCord was an American medical missionary and physician who founded the McCord Zulu Hospital and spent over three decades treating mostly African, Native, and mixed race patients in Durban, South Africa. He pioneered the training program for the first African nurses, worked towards the establishment of a medical school dedicated to training black doctors, and shared his life story in his autobiography titled My Patients Were Zulus.
Lionel Percival Hercules Mbeki Mtshali was a South African politician who was Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 to 2004. He was known for unilaterally ordering the expansion of the province's antiretrovirals programme during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in defiance of the policy of the national government under President Thabo Mbeki. A founding member and former chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mtshali was also national Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in the government of President Nelson Mandela from 1996 to 1999.
South African folk music is a form of activism that raised awareness about the spread of HIV/AIDS serving as a means of protest during the 1990s and 2000s. South African folk music incorporates various instruments ranging from drums, reeds, flutes, stringed instruments, and some other instruments. Across South Africa, folk music was one of the tools used to start discussions about HIV/AIDS. From the 1990s to the early 2000s performance groups were founded across South Africa, which was known as the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS crisis. These types of instruments have been used by indigenous South African people and some performance groups decided to incorporate some of these instruments.